USS Hershel Woody Williams (ESB 4) conducts a training exercise with the Royal Moroccan Navy’s Floreal-class frigate Mohammed V, in the Atlantic Ocean, Sept. 15, 2020.
The Royal Moroccan Navy frigate Mohammed V worked with the regional Maritime Operations Center to track USS Hershel “Woody” Williams and simulate an interception and boarding off the Moroccan coast. The units conducted the exercise to build partner capacity and exercise Moroccan capabilities to track and intercept vessels of interest within the country’s Economic Exclusion Zone (EEZ).
The exercise also included simulated man overboard scenarios and communication links between the two vessels and an MH-60S helicopter, assigned to Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 28. U.S. Sailors with HSC-28 and U.S. Marines with II Marine Expeditionary Force (II MEF), embarked aboard Hershel “Woody” Williams, executed flight operations in support of the exercise, providing communications, visual imagery, and search and rescue (SAR) operations support.
